The Cumberland Museum has a vast collection of images and artifacts drawn from over a hundred years of community building here in the Comox Valley. Researching the history of one's home here can be a very interesting journey. So, what is involved in doing such research at the museum? I will use a pet project of my own as an example.

My wife Teresa and I have the great good fortune of living in one of the oldest and most historic homes in Cumberland. This I learned way before moving into the house because there is a bronze plaque out front that summarizes its historic significance. It is this information that really piqued my interest in finding out more about the house's history.

Next stop, the Cumberland Museum. As soon as I presented curator Barb Lemky with the address of our home, she was able to direct me to a number of sources of good information about it.

First there was a file folder with all kinds of photocopies, notes, letters and pictures. She also directed me to an in-house computer where I was able to view photographs of the house taken as far back as the 19th century.

Barb also made the following book available to me from the museum's library:

CUMBERLAND HERITAGE: A selected history of people, buildings, institutions & sites 1888 -1950.

The book contains almost three complete pages of information about our house alone and has proved to be our most helpful resource yet. A further 279 buildings are documented in the same volume. Eight hundred sixty family names are referenced and the book is illustrated with more than 490 photographs.

The following passage quoted from this book gives you some idea of the sort of information available there:

3312 Fifth Street
1895
Frank Brown & Josie (McMillan) Smith

This house (illus.pg 40, shown above) was built in 1895 for newly-weds, Frank and Josie Smith. On 3 October 1895 they were the first couple married in Holy Trinity Anglican Church (2732 Penrith) - Frank was a member of the building committee). Their honeymoon, typical of the time, was to the (Puget) "Sound cities". In November they were serenaded in their new home by the recently-formed Union band, and on New Year's Day 1896, Josie, like many other Cumberland women, opened her home to gentleman callers.

Barb directed me to another very good source of information about Cumberland. The book ONE HUNDRED SPIRITED YEARS: A History of Cumberland has been especially helpful in revealing details about day-to-day life in Cumberland during the many decades of our home's life.